Wild, Wild West Senior Trip - Day 2

We began Day 2 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Today's goal was to get all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Before heading out of the Little Rock area, we drove by Little Rock Central High School, the school famous for being one of the first to integrate after the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision. Nine brave high school students, known as the Little Rock Nine, entered the school against enormous opposition in 1957.

Houses across the street from LRCHS... if they could talk!

The building is absolutely beautiful! It is the only fully operational high school on the National Historical register. I took a few moments to snap some photos and to walk around. I noticed small benches around a shallow pool in the front of the school. After a closer look, I saw that each was engraved with a name - one for each of the Little Rock Nine. I tried to imagine the 1957 scene as they walked into the school, how frightening it must have been. I hope that this historical building and monuments remain, as well as others across our nation, to remind us of our history - both the good and the bad. Because if we don't have reminders or if we erase all that offends, we risk forgetting and thus making the same mistakes.

We headed into Oklahoma next and drove and drove. No major pitstops here but took note at the number of country music singers from the state after seeing the small high school Carrie Underwood attended.

The Texas Panhandle was our next leg of I-40! Thankfully, a shorter leg and one with an interesting stop - Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. Cadillac Ranch is an installation art exhibit. Old Cadillacs are literally buried upright in the ground and people spray paint all over them, leaving some small tag of themselves. The paint layers are so thick that the Cadillacs are covered with textured color! We, of course, added our personal strokes of art to the exhibit!

Our last part of today's travels took us to New Mexico where we were greeted with a beautiful sunset! We weaved our way across the last part of our I-40 west journey and rolled into Albuquerque quite late.

Tomorrow, less driving and more exploring! Yay!!